The Ground Truth About Ground Zero

The monthly science and engineering digest's latest issue is
also an example of great investigative journalism -- a "just the facts,
ma'am" dragnet of expert analysis and succinct prose, putting hard cuffs on
the most pernicious 9-11 conspiracy theories.

Popular Mechanics details, then debunks, 16 of the worst fever
swamp fictions whose malignant emotional, intellectual and political acids
compound 9-11's tragedy . (The online edition is available at
www.popularmechanics.com.)

PM's editors use an effective technique for smacking down the
fabrications: "hard evidence and a healthy dose of common sense." With
former Sen. Pat Moynihan's quip as a guide ("Everyone is entitled to his own
opinion. He is not entitled to his own facts."), the editors say they
learned "that a few (9-11 conspiracy) theories are based on something as
innocent as a reporting error on that chaotic day. Others are the byproducts
of cynical imaginations that aim to inject suspicion and animosity into
public debate. Only by confronting such poisonous claims with irrefutable
facts can we understand what really happened on a day that is forever seared
into world history."

Physics whips foolishness, but physics can be a tough sell.
Competent engineering analysis doesn't shrink to TV sound bites. In two
tight paragraphs, however, PM dispenses with one of the more heinous 9-11
lies: the claim that the Pentagon wasn't hit by an Al Qaeda-hijacked jet,
but the U.S. military did the deed with an American missile. (This is the
accusation of French provocateur Thierry Meyssan in his bestseller "The Big
Lie.")

Here's the conspiracy theory's hook: The hole in the Pentagon
was smaller than the plane's wingspan. The anti-American conspirator's
conclusion: voila, an American missile. PM's experts point out the obvious:
"A crashing jet doesn't punch a cartoon-like outline of itself into a
reinforced concrete building." As the jet crashed, "one wing hit the ground;
the other was sheared off by the force of the impact with the Pentagon's
load-bearing columns. ... What was left of the plane flowed into the
structure in a state closer to a liquid than a solid mass."

A decade ago, the conspiracy theorists had black "U.N."
helicopters patrolling the Pacific Northwest. Nevada's Area 51 was either a
space alien landing strip or a storehouse for wrecked alien space ships. For
the most part, the paleo-right and their militia brethren saw those mirages.
Now, the decadent Left, with Michael Moore as the poster boy, seems to
produce the more malicious conspiracies.

Anti-Americanism -- of the ilk that the United States is the
root source of Earth's worst depredations -- is the common thread linking
their Gordian knots of plots. Sample dec-Left humbug: The War on Terror is
the witchcraft work of Halliburton.

No doubt the U.S. government has lied. The Johnson
administration's relentless lies about the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon's
Watergate seeded deep distrust. The Clintons' Whitewater antics and their
bumbling behavior after Vince Foster's suicide fueled right-wing suspicions.

But belief in grand political and historical conspiracies is not
a new phenomenon. Three hundred years ago, Europe's pub-crawlers thrilled to
tales of conspiracies run by Freemasons, Jesuits, Jewish bankers and French
Protestants. Religion shaped that era's explanatory conspiracies, rather
than technology, space aliens or intense French jealousy of American
success.

Some individuals cannot or will not face difficult,
history-altering facts. Conspiracy theories provide them with a
mind-numbing -- if morally degrading -- antidote for the difficult. Blaming
"Them" snuffs complexity and the responsibility for making tough choices.

But there's more at stake than individual psyches seeking solace
in updated tales of sea monsters and witches. Mass acceptance of
conspiratorial allegations can lead to holocausts. This is conspiracy theory
as agitprop, to delude so tyrants can gain or retain control. Hitler thrived
on racist theories. Marx sold a grand conspiracy theory --apparently still
treasured by many lefty academicians -- that featured "class warfare" as the
engine of history. Blind belief in Hitler's and Marx's conspiracy theories
produced the 20th century's two greatest evils, Nazism and communism.

The ground truth about Ground Zero may be hard to face, but --
with effort and analysis, like that provided by Popular Mechanics -- the
truth will out.